ATHENS, Tenn., Oct. 30, 2018 /Christian
Newswire/ -- In an interview, LCDR Walter Francis Fitzpatrick, III (Ret.)
told The Post & Email that the community of
Athens, TN is exemplary of government tyranny brought about by inaction and
a lack of vigilance on the part of its citizens over many years.

Fitzpatrick was imprisoned for over two years by the corrupt judiciary, grand
jury and "justice" system in
McMinn County, TN after approaching the grand jury in March 2014 with a
request to testify as to his allegations of local government corruption.
Instead of allowing him a hearing, the grand jury
issued four indictments against him as he sat on a bench outside the clerk's
office reading a book.

In June of that year, Fitzpatrick was
convicted of aggravated perjury and extortion and sentenced to three years
in state prison. He was released in October following three surgeries and after
developing a serious medical condition from which he is still recovering.

For more than seven years, The Post & Email has illustrated, through a number of
civil and criminal cases, the cronyism and corruption within Tennessee courts
which send thousands of citizens to jails and prisons each year without due
process.

For at least a century, Tennessee judges have been hand-selecting the grand jury
foreman from outside of the jury pool and employing him or her in the capacity
of a personal assistant. History, however,
shows that the grand jury foreman was once chosen "from the venire," or
empanelled jury pool.

Tennessee law mandates that all juries consist of eligible members of the
community who have been chosen by "random, automated means."

In late 2011, then-Criminal Court Judge Amy F. Armstrong Reedy appointed
Athens Federal Community Bank CEO & President
Jeffrey L. Cunningham to the foremanship of the grand jury reportedly by
making a personal phone call to his home in late 2010. His successor, Larry
Wallace, also chosen by Reedy, is a board member at the bank and spent an entire
career in Tennessee law enforcement in various capacities.

Why a President & CEO of a federally-chartered bank would have the time in his
schedule or the inclination to work for $11 a day as the county grand jury
foreman has never been explained.

State law mandates that all jurors must be selected by "random, automated
means." Judges have justified their hand-selection of the foreman by virtue of
having done so for as long as anyone can remember. The hand-picked foremen
serve for as long as the judge wishes, often for years or decades.

The local media has not been willing to investigate or expose the systemic
judicial corruption, including the hand-picking of the grand jury foreman.

As Fitzpatrick's alleged accuser and star witness in the June 2014 trial,
Cunningham
testified that Fitzpatrick "seems to believe" what he wrote in his petitions
submitted with his request to testify to the grand jury. However, a charge of
"aggravated perjury" was upheld by the trial jury, citing the statements made in
the petitions.

During the trial, Cunningham denied ever having filed a criminal complaint
against Fitzpatrick to advance the charges brought against him, and no police
report or complaint was ever produced by the prosecution.

While still incarcerated last summer, Fitzpatrick was called upon by a state
inmate from Shelby County to serve as a witness as to the composition of
Tennessee grand juries but was
ejected from the stand after less than five minutes of testimony by
Judge Lee V. Coffee.

Compounding the illegality of its grand juries, Shelby County
judges' practice is to not only appoint the grand jury foreman, but also a "foreman
pro tempore," which is found nowhere in state law.

Fitzpatrick spoke of not only his own experience with a corrupt judiciary, but
also the situation the nation is now seeing as evidenced by
federal judges overstepping the bounds of their constitutional authority.
Fitzpatrick said that judicial overreach is a threat to the "republican
form of government" the Founders set down in
Article IV, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution.

The problem with America today is that people are not
prepared to stand up to fight against tyranny in their own communities.
Athens, TN is a laboratory experiment. You want to know what's wrong with
America? Come here to find out.

I've said it before: Tennessee is where the
laws go to die. That is not expressed in any stronger fashion than it's
been expressed here in Athens, TN. If people are not prepared to stand up
against tyranny in their own back yard, if they're afraid of what might
happen to them if they stand up and fight back against a corrupt government
that is in plain view — judges and bankers and policemen and sheriffs — then
this country is doomed.

Either put up or shut up. Instead of having meaningless
meetings, wherever they're held, if you're not prepared to stand up against
tyranny in your own back yard as it's expressed here in Athens, TN, there is
no hope for this country. And that's the problem.

Everything that you want to know that's wrong with America is
found here. I'm going around talking to people, trying to start a whisper
campaign because people are afraid to stand up and fight back. Does it take
me to point out that you have two bankers back-to-back serving as the grand
jury foreman and that there's something going on with the money in that
bank, not to mention the fact that you're not allowed to hand-pick grand
jury members or the foreman? What more do you need to see?

If the only crime these men committed with the judges'
assistance is that they served longer in that job than they're allowed to by
statute, that's more than enough. If they locked up one person as an
innocent because they've controlled the grand jury, then that speaks
volumes. Both of these men are responsible for doing exactly that. And
their bank brags about how they treat veterans.

Can I go to a veterans' group here in town? Can I go
anywhere in town and meet with the good people and say, "It's time to stand
up and fight back. Will you go with me to the grand jury when I go there
next?" "Oh, no, Walt, you better be careful; look what happened to you.
Oh, no, we're not going to do that..."

So it's not us relying on President Trump; it's not that;
it's not us relying on our congressmen because it's not that; it's not us
relying on our police departments; it's up to us. It's our job, not
theirs. It's my job, it's my job, for goodness sakes... have I not done
enough to show people that I recognize my responsibility here, that I am
prepared to take the bullet, I am prepared to stand against this kind of
tyranny? I could use some help.

If people come together in the kinds of crowds that are
willing to stand in line to hear President Trump speak in
Nashville but are not willing to come with me and assist me in speaking
to the grand jury, then what good are they? They only want to do something
that makes them feel good but never puts them at risk.

They think everything is going to be handed to them, that somebody else is
going to fix the problem. It's not up to President Trump; it's our problem.

The good news is that we have a guy like President Trump in office who has
our back. We know now that we can go forward with more confidence than we
knew we had with a guy like Obama.

Look at the tyranny that Obama visited upon this country.
Why didn't people stand up against him? Well, a couple people tried; I know
about that; I'm one of them. The reason they didn't stand up to Obama was
that they knew the fix was in. They knew Obama was a criminal; they knew the
kind of power he wielded, and they said, "No, I'm not going there because
look what happened to Fitzpatrick."

So the fear capital of the world, where fear permeates the air, is Athens,
TN. And this is what's wrong with America: people are afraid to stand up
against what they know to be wrong, and they're afraid to stand up in
groups.

OK, then I will proceed as I had before.

Form and swarm. Get together in large groups of people, take your grand
juries back in your communities, and put them back to work. Get rid of the
corruption. A grand jury can act against any of the criminal actors that
you and I and others have talked about.

Talk about judicial overreach: look at what happened here. I haven't found
a judge here who is going to stand up to do the right thing. It's easy for
people to say, "Oh, that's in Hawaii; that's not my problem. But it's not
just in Hawaii; it's in your back yard; it is your problem, and until you
are prepared to stand up about it in large groups of people, get rid of the
fear factor and take up these issues with your local grand jury, just as
Keith Olbermann was doing last year...

It's not President Trump's job; it's our job: We the People.

Fitzpatrick ended by saying that his March 17, 2009 treason complaint
against Barack Hussein Obama is still active and "actionable."

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